Goldson wants the bar to stay raised
CONNOR GOLDSON has told his Rangers team-mates they dare not slip below the standards set by their Europa League heroics when returning to domestic action. Rangers are looking to close a 10-point deficit on Ladbrokes Premiership leaders Celtic and travel to Perth to face improving St Johnstone this lunchtime before the champions host Kilmarnock. Goldson has been dismayed by the quality of performance offered while failing to build on what was supposed to be a pivotal Parkhead victory at the end of December.
The comeback against Braga was evidence of Rangers once again raising the bar on a European night. And it is that level of excellence Goldson is demanding to witness against Saints, in next Saturday’s William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final at Hearts and every weekend between now and the end of the season. ‘Since the break, we’ve not really turned up in most of the games,’ declared Goldson. ‘We’ve got through some and taken three points. But, performance-wise, it hasn’t been there. And it was similar the other night, albeit against better opposition.
‘But we showed in that last half hour what we need to bring for 90 minutes every single week, whether it’s St Johnstone this weekend or Killie or Hearts away.
‘It gives us massive confidence and that’s what we need to bring to win a game of football.
‘We have to get on a run of picking up three points each game. We’ll only do that by bringing that performance we saw in the last 30 minutes.
‘We need to play with that intensity and hunger every week. And then we’ll see where it takes us.’
Rangers announced themselves as title contenders with a statement 2-1 success in the festive derby that epitomised the strong winning mentality built up under 18 months of Steven Gerrard’s tenure.
In letting points go against Hearts, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen since,
there was weakness and a worrying lack of spark identified by the manager.
‘I don’t know why that character hasn’t always been there,’ confessed Goldson. ‘It’s easy to point fingers and blame people or situations. But we’re all in it together. It’s tough. You have these moments in football.
‘We’ve got some results where we’ve not been at our best and we’ve suffered together. We just have to keep moving on — starting with St Johnstone.’
That’s the first of three matches on separate fronts within the short span of seven days that could define Gerrard’s second season as boss.
The return leg against Sporting Braga on Wednesday in Portugal is followed by a Saturday evening cup last-eight clash at Hearts.
‘We won’t have much time in between to recover but we’ve been doing this for the last two years and a lot of the boys in the dressing room have been playing game after game, twice a week,’ said Goldson.
‘We’re used to it. We just have to hope we can recover quickly as Hearts is a massive game for us.
‘But we’ve the second leg to look forward to first and Braga are as good a team as we’ve played at Ibrox in Europe.
‘They came and showed us little respect and played us off the park for 45 minutes — probably even more. We couldn’t get near them.
‘We fancy ourselves against anyone here but we were a bit all over the place in that first half, even though we had chances, too. We were lucky to be only two goals down. It could have been more.
‘In the first half, we had chances too. They had a lot of the ball but we had chances on the counter that we needed to take. That’s what you need to do at this level.
‘We’ll get chances in the return. They’re bold and attacking but they play a high line and give you chances to get in behind them.’